Liberty goalie Ian Carvajal (left) is congratulated by senior defender Conor Guiltinan (right) during a March 28 win over Texas A&M at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields. (Photos by Emily Cuthrell)
Men’s lacrosse to meet Minnesota in Monday’s MCLA Tournament opener
5/4/2025 6:54:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
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The No. 1-ranked Flames, winners of 15 games in a row, have advanced to the past two Final Fours and are four games away from their first national title.
One week after its ALC Championship tournament title defense, a 16-8 trouncing of No. 11 Tennessee, Liberty University's No. 1-ranked men's lacrosse team arrived in Austin, Texas, after midnight on Sunday and held a final practice that afternoon in preparation for Monday's MCLA Tournament opener against No. 16-seeded Minnesota at 10:45 a.m. EST .
The Flames (15-1) and Gophers (12-3) have met once before, on April 5, 2019, a 19-6 triumph in a Midnight Mayhem matchup at the Liberty Lacrosse Fields.
"Looking through the tournament bracket and all the teams we had the potential of playing, we match up well with Minnesota," Flames Head Coach Kyle McQuillan said. "But we're not overlooking anybody. Our message to our guys is we've got to focus on ourselves, playing our brand of lacrosse and playing to our strengths and not to our opponents'. Our success has come because we've dictated the way we've played, and that is going to continue to be our focus."
Whereas the Gophers are relatively homogeneous with 17 Minnesota natives on their 35-man roster and another 10 from bordering Wisconsin, Liberty is a virtual melting pot by comparison with players from 16 different states represented on its 36-man roster. Graduate attack Keaton Mohs, who is 19 points shy of the MCLA scoring mark, greets teammates before the start of the Texas A&M game.
Minnesota is the home state of Liberty graduate attack Keaton Mohs and senior midfielder Will Geary, who has missed the past month due to injury but could return for the tournament. Mohs needs 11 points in the tournament to eclipse Flames Assistant Coach Ryan Miller (337 points) as the all-time Liberty scoring leader and 19 to surpass Davenport's Brian LaRoque's MCLA scoring mark (345).
"Both Keaton and Will have been such huge parts of our program's development over the last four years, and it is cool for them that they get to start their last nationals against Minnesota, where they are both from," McQuillan said. "We're not trying to rush anything — and it is a testament to the rest of our guys and the depth that we haven't missed a beat without him — but we are optimistic that (Geary) is going to be able to participate in the tournament this week."
"We're fortunate now that we are coming into the tournament pretty healthy, and though a third of them are dealing with some kind of injury, the guys have the mentality that we need one more solid week and they are willing to put their bodies on the line for the team," McQuillan added.
Other first-round matchups pit No. 2-seeded Utah Valley vs. No. 15 Boise State; No. 3 Georgia Tech vs. No. 14 Tennessee; No. 4 Florida vs. No. 13 San Diego State; No. 5 BYU (the defending national champion) vs. No. 12 Cal Poly; No. 6 Texas vs. No. 11 Colorado; No. 7 Northeastern vs. No. 10 UC Santa Barbara; and No. 8 Arizona State vs. No. 9 Florida State.
Quarterfinal games are set for Tuesday with semifinals on Thursday and the championship game Saturday at 2 p.m. EST. All the tournament games are being streamed live by subscription on MCLATV.us.
